6 Games That Will Have A Tough Time Trying To Age

Since I started gaming, there has always been a wide variety of games out there. Clearly not as much as there are now, but we had our platformers, our racers, our arcade-y stuff and whatever I am forgetting to mention.

My earliest memories of games were formed around “TV Games” as we called them which consisted out of compiled games on cartridges. My gaming world existed out of Mario, Battle City and Prince of Persia on a PC with a yellow and black screen. I was in gaming heaven. Lately, games release left and right with very little time between big releases. You can expect a first person shooter once a year with bone-shattering sales. You can expect an indie game to attract enormous amounts of attention. You can expect an intellectual game that will be either completely hated or adored to very nucleus of all its cells. You can expect a reboot to receive crap about the protagonist’s hair colour.

However, you cannot expect a game to be of such nature that it will be remembered by almost every gamer out there that played it, for years or perhaps decades to come.

I present to you my list of games that will always be personally cherished when thinking back, whilst sitting in my rocking chair on a porch, 50 years from now.

The Half-Life Series

Put down the pitchforks please.

I know I said games and not game series’.

With this nominee I find it hard to choose between the very first time I played Half-Life and my playing of Half -Life 2 to till 95% and then needing to format our PC. I started playing The Orange Box on Xbox 360 a few days ago and I immediately recognised so much while it still feeling so “new”.

It’s not something I can easily put into words. (Much like the rest of our nominations.)

As with every one of these nominations, I experience a sense of “wonder” while playing. It doesn’t have to be “realistic”. Half-Life have always managed to pull me into its world without any effort on my part and I know I’m not the only one.

Journey

I played this game a about three months back and I’m still amazed by the elegant way of making me feel the way I did. From a distance it looks like a very pretty game with scarf physics and that is about it. Boy, if that’s the case with you, as it was with me, you would be doing yourself a disservice.

I have an experience with this game and another online player that I will never talk about. It was something that I cannot even now put into words and give anyone out there an understanding. Let’s just say that it would be the exact opposite of me being all tough and manly and beef and beer and steroids.

Something I will never willingly forget.

Portal

Do I hear you saying something about a Valve fanboy?

If I’m being called a fanboy during this feature, I’m absolutely certain it won’t be about Valve. (You’ll see.)

The Portal games haven’t been something I felt compelled to play, until I played them, that is. The humour, the puzzles and GlaDOS all make for an amazing ride. The games aren’t long, but it isn’t necessary to be, in order to deliver an amazing impact. It still tickles the same “laugh-buds” while forcing me to use my think-tank.

The way I’m being described by GlaDOS while playing is really not the best confidence boost out there, but the amount of charm is undeniable, you monster.

Grim Fandango

This isn’t the first time we see Manny Calavera in one of my features and I told myself the last time I used him that it would indeed be the last time. The guy keep coming back and I don’t have the necessary cruelty to show him to the door.

Grim Fandango have always had a soft spot in my heart. Today, the controls are the complete opposite of streamlined, the graphic quality isn’t at all alluring and the animations isn’t fetching to the eye, but you know what? The charm and humour is still intact without me doubting the reasons why I loved and still love the game to bits. You’re forced to think. You cannot help the laughter and Manny Calavera makes even the Land Of The Dead seem more than tolerable.

Dishonored

I have a gut-feeling that I’m going to get a few disapprovals about this one, for the fact of it not being that long since release. Yes, it released last year; one must also remember the fanbase it generated and still have.

The stealth worked and while the combat wasn’t a prime example of a miracle, the whole world and range of abilities made up for it. I know that this will be a definite keeper in terms of my thinking about it for years to come.

The BioShock Series

Yes, the fanboy I mentioned earlier has arrived and I’m here to stay.

BioShock, BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite made me care about the world I was currently exploring. I didn’t look around every corner for audio logs just for the sake of collecting them and earning an achievement, but because I REALLY wanted to.

Rapture and Columbia both have and always will have a top spot in my cranium for being fictitious world I cared probably more about than my own. The world is THE main character.

Rapture will probably smell like an untreated sewer filled with fish guts while Columbia’s inhabitants should be talking with squeaky voices and Booker may be a pornstar in another reality, but I don’t care. I loved every second I spent in those worlds.

Conclusion

As always, I’m delighted to share my candidates and in return I wish you to tell me your unforgettable games. It doesn’t have to be a best-seller. It doesn’t even have to be well-known, but it does need that special something to make it impossible to forget. Please, we do like to hear your choices.

These are three games that I’ll cherish forever…
-Final Fantasy VII
-Homeworld
-Freelancer

Listening to the OSTs of FF7 and Homeworld really help the nostalgia factor. :)

http://egamer.co.za/ Azhar Amien

Very sweet list, I can agree with all except (as you expected ) Dishonored. It’s a great game, but for me it isn’t all that memorable other than its art style, which was fantastic. The rest though will stick with me for all the years to come =)

I would add, for my list, Metal Gear Solid <3

wolftrap01

+ Dark Souls

Nice list you have there Mr. Wolf I haven’t all of them besides Dishonored. I’ll take your advice and add them to my wishlist.

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

I usually like to give a game a few years before deciding that it’s a timeless experience. To that extent, I would add the following games to this list: Assassin’s Creed, Freelancer… and yeah, that’s about it. This is a pretty solid feature, as far as games I too think are timeless. Let’s see in a few years how I feel about Mass Effect 3.

http://twitter.com/deshni_naidoo Deshni Naidoo

Hello. Where is Mass Effect? The Mass Effect series has ruined gaming for me because nothing I played afterwards came close to my Mass Effect experience. Haters gonna hate I guess.

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

I think Rudolf is quite the connoisseur of the Mass Effect games, as much as we are. :)

http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

I feel so ashamed, having completely forgotten about Mass Effect when compiling my list. :/

http://twitter.com/deshni_naidoo Deshni Naidoo

You should. Bad Shepard!

AG_Sonday

Quite an interesting list and one that I don’t disagree with. It’s strange how we’re more forgiving of games that hold a strong nostalgic charm over us.

Trebzz

I hate Journey ooooh I’m a kite/scarf and its the bloody desert

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

LOL.

Yashaar Mall

I think when generating my own list, I think of games that I played 10-15 years ago and I still want to play. I still have cravings to play Vice City, Metal Gear Solid 1 and Star Wars: KoTOR almost on a daily basis. But currently, I’d have to vouch for Mass Effect. It was this generation’s highlight for me.